New HSBC Report Urges Pro-Trade Policies

New York, NY – Though the US “continues to confront a competitiveness challenge of too few quality jobs and too little income growth, there is a future in which America can create millions of good jobs connected to the world via international trade and investment,” according to “Made in America – Made for Trade,” a new report released by HSBC.

Reaching that future, though, “will require US policies that are based on a sound understanding of how American companies succeed in today’s dynamic global economy, and of the critical role that trade finance plays in that success,” writes the report’s author, Prof. Matthew Slaughter of the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College.

The US, he concludes, could boost productivity and revitalize the economy in the next decade if the country “pursues an expansive and connected set of pro-trade policies in the areas of international trade, investment, immigration, tax, and the social safety net.”

The report’s major points:

* In absolute dollars, US exports have more than doubled from$1.04 trillion in 2003 to $2.26 trillion in 2013. “The net result has been a commensurate surge in how important exports are to the total US economy.”

* In the past three years, exports as a share of US GDP reached about 13.5 percent; the highest share since at least 1947.

* Exporters and importers “are more capital-intensive, more productive, and pay higher wages – about 15-20 percent higher for companies that trade and about 25-30 percent higher for multinational companies.”

* The tally of US companies that export has risen steadily in recent years, reaching a record 304,867 in 2012. Small and medium-sized companies – those that employ 500 workers or fewer – accounted for over 97.7 percent of this total count, at nearly 298,000.

* International trade “has boosted annual US income by at least 10 percentage points of GDP relative to what it would have been absent this global engagement. That translates into an immense aggregate gain in 2013 of at least $1.7 trillion, an average gain of over $13,600 per US household per year.”

* An aggressive pro-trade policy initiative could create, over the next decade, about 10 million new high-paying trade-connected jobs in America: one million per year or about 100,000 per month. This is indeed an aggressive goal. But it is also one that is no doubt attainable.

The HSBC Made for Trade report was crafted as an on-tour “national conversation” with leaders in business, government, industry and academia in four US cities whose economies have been shaped by global trade holding discussions on the role of global trade in today’s economy.

The national tour looks at the contribution of international flow of goods, services and capital to the US economy, and the opportunities for American businesses brought about by global trade.